October 2008

So glad I can be one of them.
So my Internet connection is down as I am writing this although by the time you read this it will be back up 🙂
This has been one of the hardest weeks I’ve had in quite some time, hell really the last month. The week prior to my vacation and the blogmeet was extremely long. Most of the days were 12+ hours. Since I got back to work I have had one day off in the last fourteen and that was eleven days ago. Each of them has been 10-14 hours and I don’t think a single day has gone by that someone hasn’t called in on me. Yesterday I was hung all three shifts and just barely managed to avoid working a triple shift. I’m too old for that shit. Today was the last day on one of my manager’s vacation, one of the other store managers is off and the third one fucking called in. Called in. What a crock of shit.
I spoke with her this afternoon and after reading her the riot act about her fucking employees jacking their jaws on their cell phones all day I let her know that she had to make up the hours that I had to pay out to cover the shift she should have been cooking. She wasn’t too happy about that but she was even less happy about the phone thing because she is just as bad as her employees. I told her they could no longer be on the phone at work and she tried to tell me that it was OK when they were outside smoking, at which point I had to tell her, NO it is not OK, they are to leave them at home and if I see them they will be confiscated. Lately a couple of them have had bluetooth devices and I just want to snatch them off of their fucking ears. Luckily common sense came to me just before I grabbed one yesterday.
Oh well, I’ve had a smoke and a cup of coffee and now the connection is back up. Time to find some crimes to blog about.
later, dudes and dudettes

Wednesday Hero was started to put a spotlight on the men and women of the United States military and the bravery their show day in and day out. But on a few occasions a service members of an allied nation has been profiled. Such is the case this week.

Despite being shot twice during an ambush in Afghanistan, an SAS (Special Air Service) soldier from Australia lashed himself to the front of his patrol vehicle so he wouldn’t be left behind if he passed out from loss of blood and kept on fighting.

The Digger is expected to be recommended for a high level bravery award.

Suffering from serious upper body wounds, the soldier struggled on to the front of his SAS long range patrol vehicle (LRPV) and, under heavy fire, used a rope to attach himself firmly between the vehicle’s bull bar and radiator.

Once he was secured, and there was no chance that he would fall off if he fainted, he picked up his rifle and resumed firing at the enemy during a two-hour fighting withdrawal.

SAS troops and their special forces comrades from the Commando Regiment are well aware of the slow and painful death that awaits them if they are captured by the Taliban.

The Digger, who cannot be identified, faded in and out of consciousness, emptying several magazines as volleys of enemy rounds and rocket propelled grenades, rained down around him.

He was finally evacuated from the battle field at high speed still lashed to the front of the LRPV.

A source told The Courier-Mail the Digger was now “up and about” and would recover fully from his serious gunshot wounds. His heroic deeds will be recognised when he is recommended for a high level bravery award.

Several others engaged in the do-or-die battle on September 2 are also in line for top honours.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Back at the beginning of the year I wrote several posts about Meredith Emerson, her murder and the man who decapitated her, Gary Michael Hilton. He is currently in prison and was extradited to Florida back in the summer to face charges in the murder of Cheryl Dunlap. This isn’t about him though, it’s about Meredith Emerson.

Sgt. Carlton A. Clark
22 years old from South Royalton, Vermont
2nd Brigade Troop Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)
August 06, 2006

Sgt. Carlton Clark graduated from South Royalton High School in 2002. While in high school, he was co-captain of his soccer team and a member of the track and field and basketball teams. He graduated from basic combat training and advanced individual training in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. in 2002 and was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. as a combat engineer. He was air assault qualified and deployed during the initial wave of Operation Iraqi Freedom for one year. He was subsequently assigned to West Point to train cadets. He re-enlisted and was deployed for a second tour of duty in Iraq. He earned a Purple Heart, an Army Commendation Medal with Valor, a Bronze Star Medal and was posthumously awarded a second Purple Heart.

Sgt. Clark was killed in action when an IED detonated near his Humvee while conducting combat operations in Baghdad. Also killed in the attack were Staff Sgt. Stephen A. Seale and Cpl. Jose Zamora.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Obviously I’ve moved my header from Shadowscope. I am going to be putting a new one over there more related to the subject of what I’ve been blogging about there. You know, dead people, trailer trash, meth heads. All I have to do is go to work and shoot some photos and post ’em. bwahaha.
Unfortunately I’m not fucking kidding.
Sorry I haven’t put a post up since Helen other than the tramp stamps, although the last two have been nice at least. Need to find a good thong picture for Thursday I guess.
I just received an email from an adoring reader at Shadowscope. hee. Check this out.

Do you ever think that for one moment or one day you could ever write a blog without swearing? Try it. Try to be classy for once. You might just get your message across.
Disgusted by your language.

Well fuck you very much you fucking slut. Thanks for the email Dianne. Did you ever try a day NOT reading it if you were disgusted?
Actually she does have a point though, which is one of the reasons I moved this crap over here and left the Crime Blogging at Shadowscope. I wanted some semblance of ‘professionalism’ over there. It’s hard though some days not cursing about some of the scumbags I write about there.
I wanted to get on and bitch about what a hard week I have had since getting back from vacation but I think I’ll save that for tomorrow provided I make it home before midnight.

    If you have used computers for any length of time, think about how many companies you know of that have been around for over a decade. I'm not talking about companies like Microsoft or Apple or even any of the application companies like Intuit. All of them have proven histories of course but I'm talking about the smaller guys, in this case PKWare. I've been using their products since the early nineties, most specifically PKZip for DOS and then Windows. They have really come a long way over the last 22 years since they were founded. PKZip was a must-have for old BBS system operators like myself back in the days before the World Wide Web came along and even now Zip is the standard for compression amongst most PC users. Linux fans will take issue with this and while I also like running Linux and use GZip compression Zip is much more well known.

Anyway, on to the reason for the post. PKWare is giving away a free non-commercial license for SecureZIP Express for anyone to download and you can also win some pretty cool prizes in the Decrypt and Drive contest such as a Honda Scooter, bicycles, a Nintendo Wii and Mario Kart for the Wii, gas cards and iTunes gift cards. You can play the game daily in order to try and win one of the great prizes but it needs to be on the computer that you have installed SecureZIP Express and the digital certificate.

To enter the giveaway you need to download SecureZIP Express at www.securezip.com and then go to www.DecryptandDrive.com to register.

One of the really cool things about using SecureZIP Express is that you can compress and encrypt your files using a digital certificate so that whoever the file was encrypted for doesn’t need a password. It’s a nice way to carry around files on an SD card or USB drive. Remember the old days of carrying around files on floppy? Thank goodness those are gone 🙂

Anyway, head on over and download SecureZIP and enter to win their giveaway.

    I run a tech site. It's just a small blog where I will occasionally post news and videos and such. I have never intended for it to be one of the huge gadget blogs, don't consider it a 'contender' or anything like that. I just enjoy writing. I also run a very specific site targeted toward HTPCs and home automation, two of my hobbies. As a result I surf tech sites a couple times a month looking for cool new gadgets or software that I might be able to use or that I might want to post about.<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.gadgetadvisor.com/">Gadget Advisor</a> is a relatively new site but one I seem to be going back to on occasion for the news and gadgets. What got me hooked was an article on the Logitech Harmony <a href="http://www.gadgetadvisor.com/gadgets/logitech-harmony-advanced-universal-remote-control">universal remote</a>. Being an HTPC freak I enjoy reading about stuff like that and I will sometimes get a severe case of gadget envy at the same time. I wouldn't use the Harmony simply because I use my own hardware/software solution that incorporates my HA stuff but if it weren't for that it's a pretty cool remote.</div>
    What's nice is that it's not just some junk site. There is one article about online backup services that I agree with and I actually use their top pick. I used to think it was stupid to <a href="http://www.gadgetadvisor.com/tech-news/evaluating-online-backup-services">backup online</a> but now that I've been doing it for a few months I wouldn't do anything else. I still do occasional backups to DVD but it's a pain to back up 40GB of info to DVD. I don't have the time or the patience for it.<div><br /></div><div>One article that's been at the top for a few days is about the <a href="http://www.gadgetadvisor.com/computer-software/recommended-firefox-extensions">best Firefox extensions</a>. Doesn't really apply to me anymore since I seem to be using Chrome almost exclusively but it's still informative nevertheless.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, if you like tech stuff go check out the site and let me know what they think. I may start linking to their feed on one of my tech sites pretty soon.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>

    It's about time they took the gloves off and released this. H/T to <a href="http://www.red-alerts.com/eat-it-hippy/mccain-camp-releases-ayers-attack-ad/">Red Alerts Blog</a> for pointing me to the video. I'm cross-posting this to several sites as well.<br /><br />